I think Patrick's comments are right on. I rode a metric century today on Paris-Motos (mounted on 32 spoke Dyads laced to Phil cassette hubs). They felt fine cruising along solo, but I sure didn't feel like trying to wind them up to jump on one of the pacelines that passed me. Had I been on my crabon go-fast running on 24/27 spoke Campy wheels and 25 mm (measured 26 mm) Vittoria Open CX's I would have been more able to make the jump. What wears you out in a fast group isn't so much rolling resistance as the constant accelerations and decelerations, and light, skinny wheels and tires seem to spin up faster.
That said, I was very comfortable today with 65 PSI in the tires and a sprung Brooks Champion Flyer under my butt and that was what I wanted for today's ride. 65 miles and 1655 feet of climbing in 4:32 won't get me a pro team contract but it felt fine for this overweight 52 year old. Bill On Feb 26, 7:54 am, Patrick in VT <swing4...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Feb 25, 2:56 pm, William <tapebu...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > A lot of comfort is bike fit, though, and the 700x28 wheels won't change > > any of my fit points on the bike, so maybe I'll feel just as good. > > Who knows? > > Depends on the roads, no? most of the long rides I do happen to > include a lot of dirt - I really like 650b for these rides because it > is definitely more comfortable when the pavement ends. > > for road rides, my 700c bike with 25s is just plain faster. every now > and then, i'll take my 650b rig (which is actually a sporty bike - > columbus spirit-for-lugs tubes/pari-motos/white industries H2s laced > to aerohead rims) out with some fast friends (who i can normally put > the hurt on) and it's a struggle just to keep up. the pari-motos at > 50psi just don't accelerate like a narrower tire at higher pressure - > and it's very noticeable when you need to get back up to 25mph in a > hurry. this is what "fast" means to me. > > just cruising along, I don't really notice a difference - i'm as fast > as my legs and lungs are strong on any given day. but the bike/wheel > choice becomes pretty clear given the type of ride i'm about to do: > rough-stuff mixed terrain or long brevet - 650b!! spirited road ride > - 700c!! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.